hermes-mcp/product/incubation/hermes-mcp-productization.md

Hermes MCP Productization and Monetization

Positioning

What you are selling:

Secure MCP gateway for company tools.

Not an SDK. Not a framework.

Help teams expose internal APIs, databases, and workflows to AI agents with:

1. authentication
2. tool permissions
3. audit logs
4. observability
5. managed hosting

First product

Build one paid product first:

MCP Gateway

A hosted service where a customer can:

1. connect one internal system
2. expose a safe MCP endpoint
3. control which tools are visible
4. track every tool call
5. revoke access instantly

First customer

Sell to one of these first:

1. AI startups that need internal tool access fast
2. mid-size companies building internal copilots
3. fintech or regulated teams that need logs and permissions

Best first wedge: internal support and operations copilots.

Packaging

Free

For hobby and evaluation.

Includes:

1. 1 workspace
2. 2 connectors
3. limited monthly tool calls
4. community support

Team

Price: $199 to $499 per month

Includes:

1. 10 connectors
2. role based permissions
3. audit logs
4. retries and rate limits
5. email support

Business

Price: $1,500 to $3,000 per month

Includes:

1. SSO
2. private networking
3. longer log retention
4. alerts
5. SLA
6. advanced observability

Enterprise

Price: $20k to $100k+ per year

Includes:

1. VPC or on prem deployment
2. compliance features
3. dedicated support
4. custom connectors
5. architecture review

Revenue model

Use subscription + implementation + usage.

Subscription

Recurring monthly or annual revenue for access to the platform.

Setup fee

Charge $3k to $15k for initial deployment, connector setup, and policy configuration.

Usage

Meter one of these:

1. tool calls
2. active connectors
3. active environments
4. audit log retention

What to build in v1

Must have

1. API key and OAuth auth
2. tool allowlist and denylist
3. request logging
4. connector for REST APIs
5. connector for Postgres
6. basic admin UI
7. tenant isolation

Nice later

1. connector marketplace
2. workflow builder
3. prompt management
4. model routing
5. agent orchestration

How to sell it

Pitch:

Connect your internal tools to AI agents safely in a day, with full control and auditability.

The buyer cares about risk, speed, and control.

30-day monetization plan

Week 1

Create:

1. landing page
2. demo video
3. one clear use case

Week 2

Build:

1. hosted MCP endpoint
2. auth
3. tool filtering
4. logs

Week 3

Outbound to:

1. founders building AI products
2. devtools teams
3. heads of AI or platform engineering

Offer a paid pilot.

Price: $5k setup + $500 to $2k per month

Week 4

Close 1 to 3 pilots and learn:

1. what connector they want first
2. what security feature blocks the sale
3. what outcome they pay for

Homepage copy

Headline

Secure MCP infrastructure for enterprise AI

Subheadline

Expose internal tools to agents with authentication, permissions, audit logs, and observability built in.

CTA

Book a pilot

Recommended path

Start with:

Managed MCP Gateway for internal tools